Howard Henry Baker, Jr. (born 1925)

Howard Henry Baker, Jr., was the first n ’s retirement from the Senate in 1985, the popularly elected Republican senator from principal entrance to the Republican leader’s suite in the , serving in the U.S. Senate from 1967 to 1985. Born in Huntsville, Capitol (S–230) was designated the Howard H. Baker, Jr., Tennessee, Baker joined the U.S. Navy Room by Senate resolution. One year later The Dirksen during World War II and later practiced Congressional Center in Pekin, Illinois, lent this portrait law in his home state. For most of his life of Baker by Herbert Abrams for display in the suite. Abrams had completed he was surrounded by politicians—both his O father and his stepmother served in the the portrait in 1984, although he later modified it on several occasions. U.S. House of Representatives. His father- In the painting Baker is shown seated in the Old Senate Chamber, the in-law, Everett McKinley Dirksen, was a member of both the U.S. House of Repre- historic meeting place of the Senate from 1810 to 1859. sentatives and the U.S. Senate, where he In 1999 the Senate Commission on Art created the Senate Lead- served as Senate minority leader from ership Portrait Collection to honor presidents pro tempore and majority 1959 to 1969. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1966, and minority leaders. Interest in memorializing Senate leaders had been Baker quickly rose through the ranks. His sparked by the Leader’s Lecture Series, in which former leaders share calm and witty style gained him public their insights with current and past members of the Senate. Senator Baker recognition when he served as vice chair- man of the Senate Select Committee on was the honored guest at the leader’s lecture in 1998 when he spoke Presidential Campaign Activities, also about his years as majority leader. Although the Senate already owned known as the Senate Watergate Com- several paintings of former leaders, Abrams’s likeness of Baker was the mittee. He is remembered for having pointedly asked, “What did the president first piece acquired after the Senate Leadership Portrait Collection was know and when did he know it?”1 In officially established; The Dirksen Congressional Center donated it to 1977 Baker was elected Senate minority the Senate in 2000. leader. The following year his persuasive demeanor was instrumental in the pas- Abrams is a noted portraitist who has been awarded numerous com­ sage of the Panama Canal Treaty, which missions in the Washington, D.C., area. He is represented in the White called for the gradual transfer of the House collection with paintings of Presidents and George canal to Panama. Baker was a candidate for the Repub- H.W. Bush, as well as First Lady Barbara Bush. Other portraits by the lican presidential nomination in 1980 but artist include Congressman John Rhodes of Arizona in the U.S. House lost to . He became majority of Representatives, Secretary of the Treasury at the Trea­ leader in the new Republican-controlled Senate, but he did not seek reelection in sury Department, and Generals William C. Westmoreland and Bruce 1984. Instead, he returned to Tennessee to Palmer, Jr., at the Pentagon in practice law. Although Baker considered a Arlington, Virginia. Abrams’s second run for the presidency, he put aside those personal ambitions in 1987 to serve portrait of Senator James the Reagan administration as Eastland (p. 106) is also in the chief of staff. He then returned to private Senate Collection. law practice in Tennessee and Washington, D.C. In 1996, after the death of his first wife, Joy Dirksen, he married Nancy Landon Kassebaum, then a senator from Promising an “objective and even- . In 2001 he was appointed U.S. handed” investigation, Senator ambassador to Japan. Senator Baker is an Howard Baker, left, casts his vote with avid photographer, and has published two Senator , right, during the books illustrating his work. 1973 Senate Watergate hearings. (U.S. Senate Historical Office)

24 Senate Howard Baker, Jr. Herbert Elmer Abrams (born 1921) Oil on canvas, 1984 1 1 49 ⁄2 x 39 ⁄2 (125.7 x 100.3 cm) Signed and dated (lower right corner): Herbert E / Abrams• / ’84 Gift of The Dirksen Congressional Center, 2000 Accepted by the U.S. Senate Commission on Art, 2000 Cat. no. 32.00038

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